Make 'em Laugh Trivia Quiz

Answer: Bob Hope

'Thanks for the Memory' was written by Rainer and Leo Robin. It became Bob's signature tune after he sang it with Shirley Ross in his movie 'The Big Broadcast of 1938' (1938). It won the Academy Award for the best original song in 1939. Bob Hope was born as Leslie Townes Hope on May 29th 1903.

He was taken to the US from England when he was four years old, and grew up in Cleveland Ohio. Bob Hope is particularly noted for his 57 tours to entertain troops stationed around the world during World War II. I live near Eltham in south east London where he was born and there is an amateur theatre there called 'The Bob Hope Theatre'. For many years he was patron of this theatre and gave them much financial help.

Answer: Jennifer Saunders

Jennifer appeared in two episodes of 'Friends' in 1998, 'The One with Ross's Wedding Part 2' and 'The One After Ross Says 'Rachel'. She played the role of Andrea Waltham, the mother of Emily, Ross's bride. The character was an obsessive businesswoman, always on the phone, even at the most inappropriate times.

She is one of the best loved comedy actresses in the UK. Jennifer Saunders was first known for her comedy partnership with Dawn French. Since then she has written and starred in many television shows including 'Absolutely Fabulous' (1992-2012), in which she wrote and co-starred with Joanna Lumley.

She married comedian Adrian Edmondson in May 1985.

Answer: Harpo

Harpo Marx, whose real name was Adolph, was the second eldest of the Marx Brothers. Groucho and Chico had a very verbal style of comedy and, in contrast, Harpo was silent. In 1936 Harpo married actress Susan Fleming and they remained together until he died in 1964 at the age of 75.

Answer: Michael Palin

Michael Palin was a member of the 'Monty Python's Flying Circus' (1969-74) team and wrote much of the material with his writing partner, Terry Jones. The 'Dead Parrot Sketch' is a particularly loved routine, about a customer returning a parrot to a pet shop because it is dead.

The pet shop owner played by Michael Palin refuses to accept that it is dead, and the customer played by John Cleese becomes increasingly angry and his antics to prove that the parrot is dead become more and more extreme and ridiculous. Michael and Terry had written together before 'Python' and they continued to write together on many other television shows afterwards. Michael made some amazing journeys for the BBC starting with 'Around The World In 80 Days' (1989), an attempt to complete the challenge given to Phileas Fogg in the well known novel by Jules Verne and travel round the world without using aircraft.

His friendly manner of narrating helped to make these programmes very popular.

Answer: Max Miller

Born Thomas Henry Sergeant in 1894 in Brighton on the south coast of England, Max Miller was one of the most successful comedians of his generation. Censorship was very strict at the time but Max used innuendo and suggestion to put across some very risqué material. As he used to say 'It was all clean when it left the stage'. It was only the audience's imagination that made it rude.

Answer: Blanche and Harry Morton

George Burns and Gracie Allen had a long lasting double act with Gracie as the dotty wife and George as the wise cracking husband. Bea Benaderet played Blanche Morton their next door neighbour. She was a great friend and supporter of Gracie and always getting caught up in her mad schemes.

Although Bea played Blanche in all the episodes of the show, four different actors played Harry. First there was Hal March, then John Brown, then Fred Clark and, finally, Larry Keating, who played Harry for the longest. Poor Harry was often exasperated by the scrapes that his wife got into with Gracie. George and Gracie were married in real life and had two adopted children, a daughter called Sandra and a son whose name was Ronnie.

In later life George starred opposite Walter Matthau in the film 'The Sunshine Boys' (1975) about estranged comedy partners who come together for one last performance.

He won an Academy Award as 'Best Supporting Actor' for his performance.

Answer: Billy Connolly

Billy's father was also called Billy, so they were known as 'Big Billy' and 'Little Billy', when he grew bigger than his father, however, this no longer worked so he became 'The Big Yin'. Yin is a Scottish dialect word for one, so it just means the big one. Billy Connolly started his working life in the shipyards of Glasgow.

He decided to change his career and become a folk singer along with his friend Jerry Rafferty, and then as a solo artist. After a while he found that the jokes he was telling between numbers were more popular than his singing so he turned to comedy.

As well as being one of the most popular comedians of his time he has acted in movies, notably opposite Dame Judi Dench in the 1997 movie 'Mrs. Brown'.

Answer: Laurel and Hardy

Thin Englishman Stan Laurel and fat American Oliver Hardy were one of the most successful comedy duos ever. Laurel was portrayed as clumsy and childlike whilst his friend Oliver Hardy was a pompous bully always berating him. Every time they got into trouble, as they always did, Oliver would say to Stan 'That's another fine mess you've gotten me into'.

In actual fact the character played by Oliver Hardy was not very much brighter than Stan Laurel's character and often the problem was partly his fault, even though he always blamed Stan.

They appeared together in 107 films including silent movies, sound shorts and full length feature films.

Answer: Jack Benny

At the time it was usual for black actors to be playing the role of a servant. Jack's persona was that of a vain and mean man, and Rochester could see right through him and often got the better of his boss. The stereo typing of black characters as lazy and stupid had been normal practice for generations, but after World War II Jack and his writers made a conscious effort to eliminate racism from the show. Jack and Eddie got on well as a whole, but Eddie's persistent lateness drove Jack mad. He tried all kinds of ways to get Eddie to be punctual, but nothing worked.

Answer: Tommy Cooper

Tommy was in a cabaret in Cairo and the part required him to wear a pith helmet. This went missing so Tommy reached over and took a fez from a passing waiter. The audience laughed and gave him a big hand so he adopted the fez for evermore. Although Tommy always messed up his tricks for comic effect he was actually a very skilled magician, and a member of the magic circle. Tommy was well known for being very mean; he did not buy drinks or give tips. Sometimes he gave an envelope to a cab driver and said 'Have a drink on me'.

The envelope contained a tea bag.